Stitching in Sunshine

Good morning folks - hope the sun is shining where you are. We've had some torrential rain over the last couple of days but the sky is blue - mostly! and the sun is shining this morning. Weirdly this has not helped my indoor photography so apologies for that.

We've had a pretty quiet weekend, and today appears to be just strolling along gently. I am going for a walk and popping in to visit mum on the way back. She was quite up-beat when I last saw her, looking more herself, less the bewildered and wizened old lady. I have a couple of textile commissions to finish so will be working on them today, and this evening it will be a spot of music and gossip over at Rob and Marj's. They have just returned home after a wonderful week on a narrow-boat on the Welsh canals.

 Following on from my last two posts, both of which included stories and photographs of narrow boats, I have been pondering about the resurgence in interest in this gentle form of transport. I have a friend who lives full time with her husband on their narrow-boat, the Lady Arwen, and they love their life. Another friend and her family live between their house and their narrow-boat, purchased initially as 'digs' for her husband who lectures at a university too far away from home to commute. Yet another young musical friend (all these people are musicians!) spends most of his life renovating his narrow-boat and holding epic parties-  it seems to me, from the photographs, on-board as he progresses! Other friends are tentatively taking their first narrow-boating holidays, having caught onto the current 'zeitgeist'.  I would love to try it myself - but I suspect our visit to Brecon earlier this month is the closest I am likely to get!

So, back to textiles - here a few photos of the wool cushion I am making for the next craft fair.

Close up of the front, I am re-using the Big Blue Bird, which also featured on one of the cushions which sold at Open Studios. The main fabric is a charity-shop blanket which I dyed in the washing machine - I love this raspberry colour.

Here a close-up of the reverse side, showing a hand-stitched button-hole and two hand-made felt and cardboard buttons - yes, they will have stitching -holes punched into them before I attach them!

Here is the front of a cushion cover requested by a visitor to Open Studios. She wanted a small cushion with the image of a naive vase and flowers which I had included on a small folk-art quilt. I sized up the image and appliqued the pieces onto the background, which I then stipple-quilted to give that antique effect she had so admired.

I added a little hand embroidery here and there, and attached the two borders. I now have to make the back, which will be constructed form a man's thrifted shirt; I shall use the front, so that the buttons will provide a ready-made opening for the cushion pad to be inserted.

This last is an unfinished commission which I can't tell you any more about because it is a secret! Again, as I said in an earlier post, the greens just do not reproduce well on my camera, but I am using pieces from the two blankets I dyed, the green and the raspberry. I need more blankets!!!! I am really enjoying using them and can choose my own colours by dyeing them myself.

So, the sun is still shining - I am off for my walk and visit. Have a lovely day yourselves, won't you!

Glad that I live am I

This, some of you may remember, is a little fabric book I made years ago, using my own hand-dyed fabrics, and ink-jet printing on fabric. It contains the words of a childhood hymn, written by Lizette W. Reese (1856 -1935) I always thought it came from St Francis of Assisi but that's not correct. The words of this hymn came spontaneously to mind the other morning, for no particular reason. It made me think of all the words we use for 'gladness' - gratitude, thankfulness, appreciation ....perhaps you can come up with some more. This led me on to think about other Bloggers who periodically include in their posts a short list of 'things to be grateful for'.  I think it's a salutary practise to acknowledge the things in life that we appreciate, on a regular basis. So that is what this post is about. Of course, the 'givens' are family and friends, reasonably good health and a comfortable standard of living, but other events and material things come along for which I may not regularly express my gratitude. So here goes.

First up is this lovely little collection:

Ceramic buttons! Made by clever Cathy Daniels at Potter Jotter blog. They arrived the day I got back from Burwell, and they are Sooooooo gorgeous. Look at the detail on the two below -

The foot, I think, was a little joke recalling the operation I had last year - Cathy you should have put a bandage on it! They are fab, and I am really grateful for them and for your kindness, Cathy!

Ooops, slightly out of order...but you know how it goes. Other things I am grateful for can be found in the garden .........

The hollyhocks are popping up all over the place, beautiful colours. And on the veggie side, though it has been  poorer than usual crop-wise, we have had some brilliant courgettes - and I know others have noticed the same in their gardens too. This is just one small patch, there are more in the greenhouse and more in the main veggie-patch.

And a major thing I am appreciating at the moment, is our new little caravan being at its new home in Wales. Look at the site, isn't it wonderful? Jim said the scenery is breathtaking.

            Here we are, at a temporary spot, we'll be moving to another plot in a week or two.

                                           Loving the greenery and the spaciousness of it all.

    And how's that for a view each morning? Whichever way you turn there are mountains and trees.

And this is the reception centre on the side of the farmhouse. I'm really looking forward to going across and spending a few days there. Who'd have thought - me in a caravan!

And I especially appreciate No. 1 Son, who towed the van most of the way to Wales and taught his dad how to do it safely. I know Jim was quite anxious about the thought of doing this on his own, but now he feels a lot more confident. Thanks Mike for taking the time to help the Old Man out and put your Ma's mind at rest!

So there you are. Perhaps I should add my thanks and gratitude to all my Burwell Bash friends who made the week so enjoyable. So many things to appreciate. And thank you for reading my blog!